Cheeseburger Rule #13: Weight loss stopped being about health a long time ago.

As you may have noticed we at EAC appreciate honesty, and a little bit of controversial bluntness too ;p. So since we appreciate honesty it’s time to blow the lid of the whole health and weight loss lie. I’ve been wondering how long the media was gonna get away with their smoke screen attempt at trying to fool us into believing that weight loss is really about our health. Back in the 1920’s when the belgian inventor of the BMI created his “social physics” I doubt he had any idea the type of evil the insurance companies intended to use it for.
For decades the media and would-be-creditable researchers have been telling us that losing those “excess” pounds is about our health. PLEASE! THIS IS JUST A FLAT OUT LIE!-yea, I went there. Health comes mainly from genetics, lifestyle, and eating habits. As we have said before, weight can never be a sole indicator of health. I mean, many of us are no strangers to these weight loss photos that show seemingly average weight folks dropping those few “extra” pounds. Can we just admit that most of the weight loss many of us aim for has nothing to do with health, because if it did we wouldn’t be consuming small amounts of food and over-exercising. If you want to lose weight fine, that is your personal choice. And many choose to believe the health and weight loss hocus-pocus because it makes us feel as though we haven’t conformed to the societal pressures placed on women to be thin. But if you’ve been buying into the belief of weight loss under the guise of health, I’m here to tell you to take that product back to the dealer, cause you sure got a lemon.

10 Responses

Health comes more from lifestyle and eating habits than from weight, yes. But it doesn’t come mainly from lifestyle and eating habits, it comes from a combination of a lot of factors. Genetics and environment are huge ones. I’m not a fan of your phrasing because it implies that people who are not healthy have an unhealthy lifestyle or poor eating habits, when that’s probably not the case.

I’ll have to disagree with you on one point, though. Eating habits and activity level affect health more than weight does, sure. But, there are things that have a lot more impact – things we (unfortunately) have little control over: genetics, age, luck, and stress.

***Update***
I have updated the post to include genetics as a factor in health. However, that sentence was originally comparing the health affects of weight only verses exercise and eating habits, and how health has more to do with eating habits and activity more so than just the mere numbers on the scale. Obviously, eating right and exercise won’t prevent you from cancer, high blood pressure, strokes ect…but I see how that sentence can be misleading.

Those ads! *hahaha!* I have always thought that in some of them, the “after” shot was taken like 10 minutes ‘after’ the “before” one…they just straighten up their posture, maybe slightly change the angle of the shot (head-on vs. 3/4 angle?), apply spray-tanner and slightly cuter clothes and smile.

Applause indeed. When I plateaued (when weight loss and inches lost halts for various reasons) people all over for were saying:
-focus on your health instead e.g. a healthier heart, lungs, whatever
-focus on what you couldn’t do before e.g. now you can run faster and for longer

Blah, blah, blah….it didn’t help. The people who say that they’re focusing on health instead of weight loss usually only start feeling that way because they’re now only 10lbs or so from their goals. They weren’t focusing on health before.

It is sad, but it’s true. Health, for me, is just a bonus. It’s what makes me different from “naturally” slim people who are unhealthy inside. Health benefits, I feel personally, can only push you so far.

Why does everyone focus on physical health, when there are emotional health and mental health to be considered also….?
You wanna be healthy as an ox*, able to run back-to-back triathalons, and headscrewed psychotic? That’s no fun!

*(I chose that expression over the equal but different “fit as a fiddle”)

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